Mautic has always been a strong marketing automation platform, but one thing I've continually pushed for is the ways in which Mautic will be leading the way into the MarTech future. We have the opportunity now to set the bar for what marketing automation software looks like in the future. I've already talked about a few of the technical ways in which Mautic is creating the next big thing in marketing automation with the 3rd release of our software. But I haven't talked as frequently about the ways we believe marketing should be done differently from the perspective of the marketer.

To be clear, this is a topic which I have spoken on more than a dozen times and shared with hundreds of people, but I think it is important to also post a written description of how I believe it will function as well for those who prefer to have something in writing.

Mautic's campaign builder

The current campaign builder in Mautic is powerful and robust and incredibly flexible. In fact, we've won UI awards for our campaign builder and others have copied the layout and functionality more than once. It truly is a remarkable part of the Mautic platform. And yet, if you were to ask me what I think of the campaign builder I would tell you it's broken. The layout isn't necessarily broken or how it works (it does a wonderful job of allowing a campaign to be manually built and each outcome path to be defined and then created step-by-step). No, what is broken is the thinking behind the campaign builder.

Side note: Before I go further it is important to mention that in order to be able to create the future of marketing we had to begin with creating a marketing automation platform which offered feature parity with existing tools. This meant even though we knew it could (and should) be done differently, we couldn't start with something so uncommon.

When I say the thinking is broken I mean the way in which campaigns have been historically thought about and built is wrong. But as with everything this is just part of the natural progression of things. Computers used to take up entire rooms. No one imagined you could take something so big and shrink it to the size of a desktop...or fit in your pocket. And yet now we have phones with magnitudes more power than those early computers. I said early on we would see this same exponential leap happen in marketing and I've said it to the point of annoyance to those closest to me that the current way of managing campaigns will soon be laughable. What antiquated thinking in an age where uniqueness and individuality is sought after and praised so highly.  To think that every one should be grouped into a segment and then sent the same messages at the same time on the same channel is asinine.

Mautic's future campaigns

There is a better way. There is a way which changes how marketing automation is done and where the marketer is empowered to spend their time on better parts of their job. Marketers shouldn't be stuck dragging messages across a canvas and connecting outcomes and decisions and messages with little arrows and lines and setting up a path which everyone must follow. What a waste of valuable time and intelligence.

Marketing automation should truly be automated. Marketing automation should take advantage of technology to blend the power of marketing intelligence with the power of the marketer's skills. Let each do what they are best at doing. And at the same time create a unique and personalized experience for every single individual.

Marketing automation campaigns should be unique experiences. A marketer should never have to attempt to create a special path or journey for each person, but every person should have a unique journey. That's where marketing automation becomes relevant. The marketer can craft the right messages and the right content and create the elements for the journey. The marketing automation software should orchestrate the experience. The software should build out the journey for each person unique to them based on their learned and expected personal profile.

Gaining wider attention

This concept is one which is finally beginning to gain wider attention and interest from others in the marketing automation space (not necessarily by service providers - other than Mautic) but rather by those analysts and individuals who are able to see what are coming next. Those prognosticators of marketing automation are pointing to this concept of a journey orchestration engine as the future of marketing automation.

David Raab, founder of a leading marketing research firm, has coined this term journey orchestration engine, or JOE, as the label by which to refer to this concept of an adaptive, learning, and personalized marketing journey. He speaks about the power of machine learning and artificial intelligence to accomplish this goal. And I could not agree with him more. He has very accurately described the exact solution I foresaw; and agrees with the rather primitive current marketing automation campaign builders. He describes what Mautic has already been proclaiming is the future of marketing automation.

Mautic 3 changes everything

This is why I am so excited about our next version of Mautic. No longer are we stuck in the old days of marketing automation software demanding hundreds of hours of tedious data entry and campaign creation. We are no longer forced to use a behemoth system taking up a veritable room. Instead we have the speed and power of an agile marketing automation platform where marketers create the elements and the platform orchestrates the journey. And with the amazing Mautic mobile interface it's quite literally all held in your pocket. Mautic 3 accomplishes all this and much more. Interested in learning more? Follow my blog to be notified when I share future posts on the subject.